State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

precipitation

  • When It Rains, It Pours. Why?

    When It Rains, It Pours. Why?

    Atmospheric scientist Michela Biasutti investigates what drives rainfall on a wide variety of time scales, and how climate change may affect it. She is passing on the basics to students.

  • Europe’s ‘Great Famine’ Years Were Some of the Soggiest in Centuries

    Europe’s ‘Great Famine’ Years Were Some of the Soggiest in Centuries

    Unrelenting rains led to a miserable famine in Europe from 1315-1317. Just how wet was it? A new study reveals that the beginning of the famine included some of the wettest years in the last 700 years.

  • Stronger Rains in Warmer Climate Could Lessen Heat Damage to Crops, Says Study

    Stronger Rains in Warmer Climate Could Lessen Heat Damage to Crops, Says Study

    Intensified rainstorms predicted for many areas in the United States as climate warms could more efficiently water some major crops, which would at least partially offset projected yield declines caused by rising heat itself.

  • How Climate Change Impacts Our Water

    How Climate Change Impacts Our Water

    Climate change disrupts the water cycle in ways that could profoundly alter how we live our lives.

  • Attributing Extreme Weather to Causes—Including Climate Change

    Attributing Extreme Weather to Causes—Including Climate Change

    New research and more powerful computer models are advancing scientists’ ability to tease apart the forces that can worsen extreme weather. In a new report, a committee of the National Academy of Sciences that includes Columbia’s Adam Sobel assesses the young field of attribution studies.

  • Seeing the Amazon’s Future Through the Fog

    Seeing the Amazon’s Future Through the Fog

    Scientists have developed a new approach to modeling the water and carbon cycles in the Amazon that could lead to better climate forecasts and improved water resource management.

  • Could Reducing Global Dimming Mean a Hotter, Dryer World?

    Despite concerns over global warming, scientists have discovered something that may have actually limited the impact of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in recent years by reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the surface of the Earth. In research they published last year in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, a team led by Beate Liepert…

  • When It Rains, It Pours. Why?

    When It Rains, It Pours. Why?

    Atmospheric scientist Michela Biasutti investigates what drives rainfall on a wide variety of time scales, and how climate change may affect it. She is passing on the basics to students.

  • Europe’s ‘Great Famine’ Years Were Some of the Soggiest in Centuries

    Europe’s ‘Great Famine’ Years Were Some of the Soggiest in Centuries

    Unrelenting rains led to a miserable famine in Europe from 1315-1317. Just how wet was it? A new study reveals that the beginning of the famine included some of the wettest years in the last 700 years.

  • Stronger Rains in Warmer Climate Could Lessen Heat Damage to Crops, Says Study

    Stronger Rains in Warmer Climate Could Lessen Heat Damage to Crops, Says Study

    Intensified rainstorms predicted for many areas in the United States as climate warms could more efficiently water some major crops, which would at least partially offset projected yield declines caused by rising heat itself.

  • How Climate Change Impacts Our Water

    How Climate Change Impacts Our Water

    Climate change disrupts the water cycle in ways that could profoundly alter how we live our lives.

  • Attributing Extreme Weather to Causes—Including Climate Change

    Attributing Extreme Weather to Causes—Including Climate Change

    New research and more powerful computer models are advancing scientists’ ability to tease apart the forces that can worsen extreme weather. In a new report, a committee of the National Academy of Sciences that includes Columbia’s Adam Sobel assesses the young field of attribution studies.

  • Seeing the Amazon’s Future Through the Fog

    Seeing the Amazon’s Future Through the Fog

    Scientists have developed a new approach to modeling the water and carbon cycles in the Amazon that could lead to better climate forecasts and improved water resource management.

  • Could Reducing Global Dimming Mean a Hotter, Dryer World?

    Despite concerns over global warming, scientists have discovered something that may have actually limited the impact of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in recent years by reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the surface of the Earth. In research they published last year in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, a team led by Beate Liepert…